Mailbag: Abortion rights supporters can't impose their will on Hoag

I find it curious that those who advocate abortion on demand would lament Hoag's decision to stop performing elective abortions.

I wonder what their response would be if they went to their favorite steak restaurant only to find that it had been recently purchased by vegans who eliminated all menu items that conflicted with their personal beliefs.

Could they reasonably protest the restaurant denying them their favorite steaks? Could they reasonably protest the owners doing so without first notifying their customers and getting their customers' permission? Are owners imposing their beliefs on the customers or would the customers, should they make an issue of it, be imposing their beliefs on the owners? Shouldn't the customers just move down the block to another restaurant?

Certainly a surgical procedure is a more serious matter than a steak. Likewise, it is a more serious matter to presume to compel people to perform such procedures when doing so violates their sincerely held convictions.

For generations, Catholic hospitals have served our communities faithfully and diligently. Do we really want to put them out of business over their conscientiously held beliefs, especially when a woman can get an an abortion in so many other places?

Steven J. Dzida

Costa Mesa

*

Why I left the church

Re. "I support Hoag, reject Democrats (Forum, July 7): Like Mr. Dennis Montenaro, I too, used to be a Democrat and a Catholic. However, the issues that I have with the Catholic Church dwarf any that I have with the Democratic Party.

The church's disregard for the welfare of young children while sheltering pedophile priests for many years is just the brick (not straw) that broke the camel's already-injured back.

The Catholic Church may believe that it can dictate personal preferences to the whole world, but it ain't necessarily so.

The recent demonstrations at Hoag Hospital were supported by individuals from both sides of the issue, which is the American way, and the way it should be.

I am no longer a Catholic.

Conrad Timpe

Newport Beach

Attitudes toward women antiquated

The Catholic Church's historical position, based on the likes of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, is that women were created to live under the subjugation of men.

This assumption is surpassed only by the sanctimony of the Covenant Health Network. Central to its doctrine is that women are to be denied self-determination in their healthcare decisions, and male administrators are granted the audacious right to select which legal reproductive procedures they'll make available to women in this now-dominant healthcare system in Orange County.